Meet (awesomely named) Dawn Hawkins. She is executive director of Morality in Media, which (according to its website) is “the leading national organization opposing pornography and indecency through public education and the application of the law.”
As Dawn recounts in the video below, last month, while she was flying on Delta Airlines, she noticed that the guy seated in front of her was, on his iPad, looking at porn on the airplane. (It was also six in the morning. But you know what they say: it’s never too early to start looking at porn on an airplane.)
Ms. Hawkins asked a flight attendant to ask the guy to stop looking at porn on the airplane; the attendant said there was nothing he could do about it; the guy begrudgingly stopped looking at porn on the airplane. A day or two after the incident Dawn made the video below, and has been embroiled in a bit of (coffers-enhancing) controversy ever since.
As I write this, Ms. Hawkin’s video has been viewed 172,516 times on YouTube. It’s also there garnered 570 likes, and 23,503 dislikes.
I am choosing to decide that one guy, looking at porn on an airplane, in addition to 23,503 people on YouTube giving Ms. Hawkins’s video a thumbs down, doesnot mean that while I was looking the other way—while I was busy alphabetizing the books in my study, or taking notes in my astronomy journal about the galactic wonders I’d seen through my telescope—our society decided it was okay to look at porn in public.
Then again, what do I know? Once National Geographic decided that no film about animals should ever go more than two minutes straight without showing a traumatizing display of horribly graphic animal violence, I knew all bets were off for our culture.
So you guys tell me. It’s still considered flat-out unacceptable to look at porn in public, right?
Now, to be clear, I’m not asking for opinions on porn itself (though I’m all ears if you care to share about that). I’m also not soliciting comments about the young and earnest Ms. Hawkins, or her organization, as entirely engaging as I’m surethat conversation would be.
Right now all I’m asking is whether or not No Public Porn Perusal is still the rule. It is, right? No one thinks that on a plane—or in a restaurant, or a hotel lobby, or … in an elevator, or whatever—it’s okay to look at porn, correct? That’s still something you’re supposed to do (because, let’s face it, trillions of people every day do do it) only when you’re very strictly alone, right? Or maybe, at most,when you’re with that special someone, or … someones, I guess. But not right out in public, right?
As most of you know, I’m hardly the Church Lady. (Speaking of which, why do I assume Ms. Hawkins is Christian?) But if you guys tell me that you have everseen anyone casually looking at porn in a normal, everyday, public sort of setting, then … well, then that will be, for me, something that I really, really don’t need, which is one more reason to never leave my house.
Check out other articles by this Author:
The Inevitability of the Rise of Progressive Christianity
An Open Letter from Christians to Gay People
Ten Ways Christians Fail to be Christian
Just out: John’s UNFAIR: Why the “Christian” View of Gays Doesn’t Work. (Softcover edition; Kindle edition; NookBook edition). You’re invited to “like” John’s Facebook page, and also his group Unfundamentalist Christians, the motto of which is “Above all, love.”
Sara
20 Mar 2012I have to admit, I think it’s still wrong to look at porn publicly. Now, what you do behind a door where no one else is affected except those who want to be — who cares!
Liam
20 Mar 2012I won’t give the video any traffic (it seems it has more than enough without me). I WILL say that it’s a bit odd to be looking at porn in public. But wait a second; when she says “Porn” does she mean “Images/movies of people fucking/sucking”, or is she the kind of person that gets annoyed at, say, the Swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated? Here in the UK the 2 best-selling “Family” tabloid papers have women with their tits out on their inside pages; was this guy simply reading the Daily Star webpage?
…. just asking….
Carol
20 Mar 2012Anyone who thinks that looking at (voilent) porn in public is acceptable needs to take a long look at themselves. It’s disrespectful and offensive and if I was her, he would have been wearing his iPad around his neck.
Liam
20 Mar 2012Carol: Where does it mention “Violent Porn” in that article? I can’t find it anywhere!
Michal
20 Mar 2012I agree porn should be viewed in private. I also think if it bothered her so much she couldve averted her eyes I mean he was in front of her and it isnt easy seeing over the seats in an airplane or for that fact through the lettle crevice in between the seats so she had to position herself in such a manner she could see what he was looking at. Again I dont advocate public viewing of pron but I also dont advocate forcing ones idea or morality on another.
Melony
20 Mar 2012Liam: I didn’t even have to watch the video to see that the title of it is “man watched VIOLENT, CHILD-THEMED porn on Delta”.
Liam
20 Mar 2012Melony: the title where? On the website run by the complainant? the headline I see from the link to the Taboojive site is “I have HAD it with this mother*$#@ porn on this mother#@#* plane!”. What did I miss?
essic
20 Mar 2012Near the bottom of the article there is a vid with that that as the tital, Liam.
Ana
20 Mar 2012What, the inflight movie wasn’t good enough for him? Seriously, though, what does it say about you when you look at porn in public? It should be a private endeavor, one done behind closed doors and, if you so choose to, with a partner (who is willing to watch it).
Christine
20 Mar 2012I’m not Christian but I consider viewing any sort of undressed people in public whether engaging in sexual acts or posing is something I don’t think is acceptable. Bottom line: if my kids would see it if they were there I think it’s wrong.
Megan
20 Mar 2012Liam, I watched about 3 minutes of her video. She says that the images were of young Asian girls, and one involved a girl whipping another girl.
Caroline
20 Mar 2012Funny thing, Last summer my kids were outside jumping on the trampoline,it was early evening and they could see our neighbors t.v and sure enough our neighbor was watching porn. I had them stay inside the rest of the night because i didn’t want them to see that. I also had the some what uncomfortable conversation about why people watch it and how I feel about it and ask them how they felt about it. So my point would be, watch it behind close doors and don’t forget the curtains! thanks
Annie
20 Mar 2012Not OK in my book. I subscribe to the view that a lot of pornography is misogynistic in the extreme & supports a dreadful trade that exploits & abuses women & children.
Lisa
20 Mar 2012It should be common sense and common courtesy to not subject the general public to things that are generally done in private. This includes much more than adult themed movies.
Garry
20 Mar 2012Quite frankly, I agree that if you’re in a public venue such as a plane, you should use a little sense and not watch something so gratuitously offensive. And by that, I mean everyone has their porn preference. And some peoples’ preferences is to not like it at all. And they are perfectly entitled to that. Which means you have to use your brain and not watch something so publicly inflammatory where other people can see it. Watch it at home? Sure, go for it. Why the hell you would want to watch something arousing inside a metal tube anyways, I’ll never understand. Watching pornography for the story, right? The acting ability of the people involved? Oh, and that script! We all know the scripts in these things are amazing to observe. -.- But all that aside, there are inevitably minors on a plane who may casually(and then probably very intently) observe what you’re watching as well. And that’s just not cool. Keep it in your pants and keep the videos PG, hmm?
HB
11 Apr 2012I’m floored that anyone would watch porn in public, but this has already come up in my Seattle neighborhood; apparently it’s becoming relatively common for parents to find men watching porn on library computers, and complaining because children are frequently nearby (as they might be on a plane). There have been many discussions about this on my local parents email list.
Children and religion aside: at what point does sex become private? I completely agree that watching porn in public is an abhorrent activity. I’m not anti-porn the way this woman is; while I rarely find much redeeming about it, I don’t believe it’s always bad, and I have no problems with people enjoying it privately. There’s a place for it, but that place isn’t the library or a bus or an airplane or while sitting on a park bench.
What are our “rights” around sex? Around viewing and displaying it? From a sociological perspective I find this interesting because our media stuffs sexualized images down our throat on a daily basis, in movies, television, and advertising, and maybe this is one very unfortunate consequence of that. People believe that if they can stare at a women’s nearly-bare ass on a billboard, what’s the big deal about seeing one naked on their iPad at 6 in the morning on a flight?
Please understand I’m not defending it – the guy is a jerk. I’m not sorry to say so. He’s a jerk. But why did he think that was okay? We want to know what’s wrong with him, and that’s a fair question. What was he thinking? What are the men at the library thinking? If we’re going to discourage this behavior it would help to know how they’re sanctioning it for themselves.
Relatedly, I dont understand the inaction of the flight attendant. There is nothing you can do? REALLY? You’ve got to be kidding. It’s a private company, isn’t it? Does the United Stated government own Delta? What’s stopping the guy from standing up and saying, “Hi, I’m your flight attendant, and I’d appreciate it if you could put that away or watch something else.” Are they afraid of a lawsuit?